Thursday, November 19, 2009

Hey, guess what? I'm not dead! I know, I know, it's been nearly two months since my last post, but there's been a lot going on. I'll save all that for another post.Above is what inspired this post. This incredibly clean 1959 Crofton Bug is on Ebay right now!

I'm not sure exactly how many Croftons were made, but it was well under 500... I've heard estimates as low as 200. The seller suggests that 81 are known to exist, which seems high to me. I'm in California (home base of Crofton) and I've seen very few. I've only ever seen a couple for sale- and none as nice as this. That undercarriage is about as clean as you'll ever see on a Crosley product.The seller states that the car has a Fageol motor which seems odd if the car is stock, but not impossible. The engine is a reverse block (meaning that it is a mirror casting of a regular Crosley engine) so that the intake and exhaust are on the driver's side. This was a Crofton hallmark, and I'm not aware of reverse block Fageols, but that doesn't mean that they weren't made.

As I write this the bidding is at $4150. I'm very curious to see where this car ends up. Aside from the lame Tweetie theme (whoever buys this car needs to stuff those floor mats and tire cover into a woodchipper ASAP) this car seems like an outstanding example of the Crofton marque.

About Me

I spend somewhere near 40% of my waking hours obsessing over old cars. Usually, this obsessing revolves around an improbable American micro car from the midcentury period-- the Crosley. My fascination began with a quest to strip down my life by driving the world's simplest car.
Turns out that nothing is as simple as it seems.